Tomulic: Russia, France helped arming of Croatia during 90s war

BELGRADE – Russia armed Croatia, not Serbia, during the war, said Marin Tomulic, who said he testified it, and added that everything was done with the intervention of France, writes Serbian daily “Kurir”.

French connection in arming Croatia in the nineties, Marin Tomulic, revealed how the delivery of weapons was done for Croatia daily “Vecernji list”.

The French state “opened” Russia and all storage of weapons in countries in which Russians had them, said Tomulic and added: “Because of everything it did for us during the war, Russia does not deserve that we now uncritically introduce and extend sanctions. They were our friends and allies. I only appeal that it is not forgotten”.

Russia, he says, was a friend and ally of Croatia in the procurement of weapons in early 1990.

“The Russians delivered us weapons at the request of France. I am a witness to it,” Tomulic said for “Vecernji list”.

Now, he says, it is believed that the Russians were and remain allies of the Serbs, but he says it is not so because the Russians in the war armed Croatia, not Serbs.

Josip Manolic in his new book “Spies and homeland” mentions Tomulic, as “the first supplier to President Franjo Tudjman”. Josip Manolic is the former Croatian prime minister and high-ranking official of the secret services, both from the former Yugoslavia and from the time of the creation of Croatia.

As Croatian Prime Minister, I have given Tomulic power of authorized purchaser of government, and later the official representative of the Office for the Protection of Constitutional Order in the negotiations over the price or the manner of delivery, Manolic writes in his memoirs.

Very soon after he had been hired, Tomulic brought good news: French state is ready to assist Croatia in the procurement of all types of weapons. Soon he became part of the group made of Zeljko Tomljenovic, Ivan Cermak and (Dubravko) Novak – who would permanently deal with the matter.

“Not only France had friendly opened its warehouse but it also opened the door to the Kremlin, which has enabled us to purchase across Europe: in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria, and also in Ukraine and Kazakhstan,” Tomulic said for “Vecernji list” in Paris and added that he is still close to Manolic and is glad, he says, that he was mentioned in his memoirs.

They met through Ivan Denac, Croatian national hero and politician from the time of Yugoslavia, otherwise wedded godfather of Josip Tomulic, Marin’s father. Denac, who was political commissar of the 13th Proletarian Brigade, knows Manolic from NOB, and both knew Tudjman from even before the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia.

“Denac contacted me in 1990 and I came to Zagreb from France, met Manolic, who took me to Ivan Cermak in the cabinet of President Tudjman. Cermak asked me to assist in the procurement of weapons,” said Tomulic, who then lived in the south of France, where he had a car salon. There, one of the clients, otherwise an intelligence officer, helped him to establish contact with the French authorities.

“They told me that the decision of the French state is to help us arm,” said Tomulic and added that they gave him documentation with a catalog of all kinds of weapons of Russian production.

A few days later, he said, he went to Zagreb with the documentation, where Manolic took him to Cermak in the Cabinet of President Tudjman. Tomulic said that the catalog of weapons included all kinds of weapons, other than a nuclear bomb.

“Absolutely everything” – he said, and recounted: guns, ammunition, grenades, sophisticated weapons, helicopters. He also claimed that the Russians knew that the sold weapons went to Croatia, and that they, according to him, openly said: “We can not reject the French.”

The arms merchants are very immoral, and yes many countries were working against Serbia. Even Greeks were involved in the arms trade and financing for the Bosnian Muslims (and perhaps Croats).
The West which pushed through the sanctions was of course silent about Russia’s arms deals because it was arming the non-Serb separatists, which was part of the West’s plan.
Russia did not realize at the time, even though history should have spelled it out, that Croats would also be working against it in the future. Like nowadays Croats helping the fascist Kiev western puppet government.
Russia needs to own up to this weapon’s smuggling, and expose others, and it would be nice if it at least apologized to the Serbs of Bosnia and Croatia.

Trying a little disinformation now that the geopolitical landscape is favouring the Serbs. Those suppliers were private arms dealers, many around at the time proliferating all sorts of toys with no government oversight. Those were the times, Russian govt itself lost resources to oligarchs for zilch. Now Putin is here, that [email protected] don’t fly. Try again NATO, Croatia and silly 5th columnists.

Even if they were criminal arms dealers, Russia should publish the extent of it and list all the weapons sold for the Croats and BosMos. They should also arrest and try them if they are serious about corruption and illegal weapons sales and smuggling.
And I don’t know why you claim the geopolitical landscape is favoring Serbs: it never has. If you are thinking of Trump you are deceived as the U.S. foreign policy is run at a deeper level and the President is mostly window dressing.
Until I actual see things going Serbs way I will believe, but even today’s news runs anti-Serbian. You find Vucic giving up Serbian telecom assets in Kosovo to that Alb-centric government there. Singapore has supposedly “recognized Kosovo” according to Pristina.